UN observers caught up in Syrian violence

2012-05-16 09:08

Beirut - The UN's observer mission in Syria has been caught up in a burst of violence captured on video, with a roadside bomb damaging its cars just minutes after witnesses said regime forces gunned down mourners at a funeral procession nearby.

The mission confirmed its vehicles were hit by a bomb shortly after they met with Syrian rebels on Tuesday, and said there were no injuries.

It was not clear how close the observers were to the funeral shootings, but if confirmed, a regime attack on civilians directly in front of the observer mission could put pressure on them to describe publicly what they are seeing in Syria.

They report back to the UN but have not publicised their findings.

Tuesday's attack in the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun is at least the second time that UN observers have been caught up in Syria's violence.

Last week, a roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck in the south of the country just seconds after the head of the UN observers team drove by in a convoy.Slippers on the ground

A video of the bomb attack was posted by activists online. "The front of a UN car took a direct hit," activist Fadi al-Yassin, who witnessed the incident, said. "Everyone ran in panic but the observers stayed in the car. People tried to talk to them but they wouldn't even open their windows."

Just minutes earlier, Syrian forces fired on a funeral procession, activists said. Al-Yassin and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as many as 20 people may have been killed and said many others were wounded, some of them in serious condition. It was impossible to independently confirm the toll.

"This is a real massacre and it took place in the presence of UN observers," Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Observatory, said of the attack on the funeral. He called for an international investigation and for the monitors to state publicly what they saw.

A video posted by activists online appeared to show the exact moment the UN vehicle was struck. The video shows two white vehicles clearly marked "UN" with people milling around it, and two others parked a few meters behind.

Slippers apparently left behind by the mourners running away from the shooting earlier are seen strewn about on the ground.

The blast blew off the front of the first vehicle and sent up a plume of smoke as people screamed and frantically ran for cover. The four cars are then seen slowly driving away.Switching sides

Ahmad Fawzi, a spokesperson for Syria's special envoy Kofi Annan, confirmed the observers were caught up in the country's violence as they met with the rebel Free Syrian Army.

"The UN Mission in Syria reports that shortly after 14:00 local time today, a [UN] convoy of four vehicles was struck by an explosion from an improvised explosive device," Fawzi said in a statement. "Three UN vehicles were damaged. No UN personnel were injured."

The Syrian uprising began in March 2011 with mostly peaceful protests calling for change, but a relentless government crackdown led many in the opposition to take up arms. Some soldiers also have switched sides and joined forces with the rebels.

World powers have backed a peace plan that was put forward by Annan, but the bloodshed has not stopped. More than 200 UN observers have been deployed in Syria to oversee the truce between the government and armed rebels.

The UN estimates the conflict has killed more than 9 000 people.

UN spokesperson Hassan Seklawi said 211 military observers as well as 66 civilian UN staffers working for the observation mission have been deployed in the country, with teams based in major cities such as Aleppo, Hama, Idlib, Deir el-Zour, Daraa and Homs.

Medics targeted

The number of military observers is expected to reach the maximum of 300 later this month.

Burhan Ghalioun, the head of Syria's opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, called for decisive action to enforce Annan's peace plan, warning it risked failure. He spoke on Tuesday in Rome, where the SNC re-elected him to another three-month term during a conference of council members.

An international aid agency meanwhile warned on Tuesday that Syrian forces are targeting medical workers and patients who were wounded in the 14-month-old conflict, forcing doctors to scramble to help the injured in makeshift clinics.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, which is not authorised to work in Syria, sent teams into the country secretly. They reached the rebellious areas of Homs and Idlib, where they found patients and doctors at risk of attack and arrest.

"Being caught with patients is like being caught with a weapon," the group quoted an orthopaedic surgeon as saying in an Idlib village. There have been previous reports of authorities targeting medical facilities, health workers and their patients in Syria.

The Observatory and the Local Co-ordination Committees activist group said on Tuesday at least three people were killed in an explosion the night before in the Syrian coastal city of Banias, home to one of the country's two oil refineries.

Heavy fighting

The explosion destroyed a building but the nature of the blast was still not clear, the Observatory said.

The state-run news agency, SANA, said the blast happened when terrorists were preparing a bomb, killing the three who were working arranging it, as well as a 3-year-old boy.

The Observatory and the LCC also reported shooting by government troops in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq that left at least three people dead. They added that the rebel-held central town of Rastan was again under intense shelling by government troops.

UN military observers on their way to the central city of Hama on Monday reported heavy fighting in Rastan and nearby Talbiseh, and convinced government forces to re-open a highway they had been blocking, according to a statement from the UN in New York.

Across the border in Lebanon, Lebanese troops deployed on Tuesday in tense areas of the northern city of Tripoli after three days of sectarian clashes killed at least eight people in a spillover of the conflict in Syria. Officials said two of the eight people died of their wounds overnight.

Lebanon and Syria share a complex web of political and sectarian ties and rivalries, which are easily enflamed as Sunni Muslims who support the rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad battle members of the tiny Alawite sect, followers of an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam who are Assad's most loyal supporters.Humanitarian aid

Meanwhile, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief said that more than 1 million Syrians need assistance, but negotiating the delivery of aid has been "very slow" because the regime wants the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to control it.

"From the UN's perspective, it's important that any aid be delivered impartially," Valerie Amos said in New York. "It needs to go to people in opposition-held areas as well as government-held areas."

She said some community-based organisations fear that collecting a list of names of people who need aid could lead to those people being targeted.

Comments

Tony Lapson - 2012-05-16 09:43

Simply not enough oil for America to get involved.

AnthonyfromAfrica - 2012-05-16 14:54

The silly oil conspiracies are endless...............!!!
Just for your info: Today, most of Libya's oil ends up in China !!!
That is ; without lifting a finger, in their civil war !!!
The USA oil imports from Libya;
Before their civil war====NIL
During their civil war=====NIL
After their civil war======NIL

fred.fraser.12 - 2012-05-16 15:11

A lazy, uninformed, and ultimately stupid conclusion.

William - 2012-05-16 12:25

This has been going on far to long with too much blood shed. Something seriously needs to be done to bring this to an end. There is no way forward with Al-Assad in power and the lack of concrete action and apathy is causing massive loss of life at the hands of a regime who does so with little concern for the rule of law and human life!!! Thanks to most of the western world battling the Euro crisis Syria is forgotten. One has to ask how the Libya crisis was dealt with more effectively when one looks at Syria??

fred.fraser.12 - 2012-05-16 15:17

I agree. The lack of leadership is astounding.
The Syrian people are left to battle a cold tyrant in control of their state and military, after 48 years of unelected rule.
The only silver lining (which is not silver at all for the hapless people of Syria) is it might dawn more clearly on Middle Eastern and world leaders the contrast between allowing a tyrant free reign, and intervening on the side of the people.
It's amazing to me that just 72 civilians lost their lives in Nato's actions in Libya. While the loss of even one life is horrible, imagine the lives saved in Syria had a similar route been followed.

allcoveredinNinjas - 2012-05-16 15:21

Russia & China veto ? Unless that changes the enabling of the Assad regime by the UN (Kofi patchwork)will continue into a full blown civil war.

Matt - 2012-05-17 09:25

Fred 72 civilians died in just those bomb sights investigated. Hundreds more were not investigated at all so the real number will never be known. Yet you claim that this was the final number, you seem to be a grade A idiot.